Battle of Hiyabashi

The Battle of Hiyabashi was a military encounter between the forces of the pro-Emperor Meiji Tanegashima Domain and the pro-Tokugawa Shoguante Noburo Domain. In a decisive battle, the modernized Shogunal army destroyed the Imperialist army and took the field with medium losses.

Background
The Tanegashima Domain of Tanegashima Island (south of Kyushu) was loyal to the Emperor, and they were one of the Satcho Alliance that sent troops to assist the Imperial forces. Led by Takamoto Dauji, the Tanegashima army of 7,200 samurai landed in Honshu and marched on Edo, the Shogunal capital, where they would liberate the emperor. However, they faced a large army of more or less 8,000 troops under the command of Fusamoto Ujie, a general of the Noburo Domain. With Naginata Samurai, Yari Samurai, Yari Cavalry, and Bow Samurai, the Tanegashima army was traditionalist; they faced a larger and modern army of Red Bear Infantry and Yari Kii in the lowlands. In the autumn, with orange leaves scattering the ground and lining the treetops, the two armies met.

Battle
The Tanegashima army set up a defense, with their archers in the front line, swordsmen in the center, naginatas in the third row, and cavalry and the general in the rear. When they received reports of Yari Kii closing in on both sides, Takamoto sent all of his cavalry to engage the larger cavalry force that threatened his right flank. After a chase, they caught up and nearly routed them, but a regiment of Red Bear Infantry fired their muskets at the Tanegashima cavalry, and they were routed in minutes.

Takamoto decided to use the full force of his army to defeat one-third of the Shogunal army. He left a regiment of Naginatas, one of bowmen, and one of swordsmen to hold off the two regiments of Yari Kii that had halted a short distance away from where his original deployment was, and he brought the rest of the army to overwhelm the forces on his right flank.

Noticing the full force of the Tanegashima army being loosed on his left flank force, General Fusamoto decided to ignore this threat and two-thirds of his army, all Red Bear Infantry, stood fortified and idle where they had deployed. Eventually, when it seemed that his cavalry and one Red Bear infantry would be overwhelmed, Fusamoto sent a regiment of his army to fight. The riflemen mowed down the archers and melee infantry of the Tanegashima army, routing them, but at a heavy cost of troops. Takamoto was shot from his horse and injured, and he fled the field.

The remaining Tanegashima force on the former left flank was still active, with full forces. They charged the Yari Kii that had stood idle for the whole battle and routed them, but upon hearing of the retreat of the rest of the army, they fled almost without any losses.

Aftermath
The battle was a clear example of the failure of the samurai to adapt to the modern era. In Europe and America, soldiers had used trains, machine-guns, rifles, and ironclads in battle since the late 1840s. The two sides had suffered heavy casualties, with the Shogunate army losing half as many troops as the Tanegashima. However, the results of the battle also proved that the samurai were fierce fighters, managing to nearly rout a part of the Shogunate army. It was still a display of dishonor that only one-third of the Shoguante army fought and defeated the whole samurai army, as the other infantry units had been unscathed and had not fired a single shot during the course of the battle. The Tanegashima army was nearly destroyed, but they refused to stop fighting.